IRAQ: Iraqi official says Blackwater attack reveals crimes against civilians

Iraqi legislator Omar Abdul Sattar says the deadly Blackwater shooting incident in Baghdad last month illustrates the security chaos in Iraq, and he accuses the U.S. of covering up the crimes of private security firms. An Iraqi Sunni Arab official said on Monday (October 8) that the act of Blackwater company is a result of security chaos in Iraq. "This accident has revealed this case but if this accident did not happen, we will not know anything about it. How many people have Blackwater and others killed? I do not know. I think that there are many security firms. There is security chaos and the Iraqi citizen has became a target for everyone," Omar Abdul Sattar, member of Iraqi parliament and member in the Iraqi Accordance Front said in an interview. Iraq said on Sunday (October 7) security guards from the U.S. firm Blackwater "deliberately killed" 17 Iraqis in last month's shooting incident in Baghdad and said it would take legal steps against them. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said an investigation set up by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki found no evidence that the U.S. security firm had come under fire during the incident. Dabbagh's toll from the shooting was higher than the 11 deaths previously reported by Iraqi officials and the tone of his statement suggested Iraqi anger over the Sept. 16 has not diminished. Abdul Sattar said that the U.S. administration has tried hard to hide the security firms' crimes in Iraq. "The danger behind revealing this case led the U.S. congress or the concerned sides in the U.S. administration to close this case in a way that did not force them to open this big dossier," he added. Blackwater, which employs 1,000 people in Iraq to protect U.S. State Department officials, has said its guards reacted lawfully to an attack on one of its convoys. Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, said in remarks prepared for a Congressional hearing last week that his men came under small-arms fire, including from people wearing police uniforms, and "returned fire at threatening targets". Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly U.S. and European security companies in Iraq, with estimates of the number of private contractors ranging from 25,000 to 48,000. A U.S. Congressional report released last week said Blackwater had been involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005. In 84 percent of those cases, it said Blackwater personnel were the first to open fire. Under a 2004 ruling issued by the U.S.-led authority which ruled Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the firms are immune from Iraqi law.

ITN Source | October 9, 2007

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